Chill Subs is a new website to help poets and writers find the right home for their work “without wasting too much energy, losing your shit and hating yourself for being unproductive.” You can browse magazines or search with a variety of helpful filters, such as magazine name, contributors, response times, genres, specific demographics, and one of my favorites–vibe. Vibe categories range from “very fancy” and “top-tier stuff” to “weird / outsider” and “we’re just chilling here.” Additionally, you can filter by Basic human needs such as simultaneous subs and previously published OK, to options for Money, Promotion and hype, and Availability. The database is continuing to grow, and you can support their efforts by suggesting a magazine or donating via https://www.buymeacoffee.com/karinakupp. The casual and friendly aesthetic and mood of the site are refreshing and fun! I had to know more about this project, so I interviewed founder Karina Kupp. 

HOPKINSON: What was the inspiration for creating Chill Subs?

KUPP: Honestly, I really did it just for myself first. After almost a year of posting my writing on Instagram, I wanted to start submitting to magazines. But I’m a huge research freak and I couldn’t just pick a random journal and send them my work. So I went to Poets & Writers huge list of magazines, opened ALL of them, and added the ones that I didn’t hate at first glance to my spreadsheet. It pretty much included all the info that Chill Subs currently has, like is the magazine open/closed, deadline, accepting simultaneous submissions and previously published, payment, their social media presence, all that.

But still, something didn’t feel right. First, I was still really overwhelmed with all these options, like it’s impossible for me to choose a magazine when I don’t feel truly connected to it, I’m really weird about it. And the spreadsheet didn’t give me that, this connection. It’s just this boring raw data, and I was feeling like a robot, and I didn’t feel motivated at all.

And second, I was really confused because it was hard for me to decide which poems I should submit and which poems I should leave for my social media, and I was angry because why on earth do I even have to make this choice. I already had so many people enjoying my poems on Instagram and I didn’t want to lose all these people by not posting anything. Gosh, it’s exhausting. I’m a huge, huge overthinker.

Anyway, I shared my worries on Instagram, told everyone about my magazines research and some people commented that they’d love to see it!

So I started polishing up my spreadsheet, and then on the day when it was almost ready to share, my husband and I went to a cool Polish bar for a beer and started generating some absolutely random quick startup ideas (yes, that’s what we do when we drink beer or actually always). And I realized that almost all of my ideas were connected with somehow organizing data in a nice way that’s enjoyable for people! And then I thought “Whoa wait! I already have a great data source! Why not have fun with it, instead of just sharing a spreadsheet? Everyone has their own spreadsheets already, that’s not cool enough!”. So I came home and started constructing the website immediately, did the initial design in a day and was super happy!

I was really confident in the idea because I always saw people on Twitter asking where they can submit their writing, even though the info is available on lots of websites. The presentation of this info was just bad. And I’m a huge huge fan of nice presentation.

So I think my two main motivations were:

1. becoming less overwhelmed with all the options
2. replacing boring and robotic with fun and humane

HOPKINSON:  What’s surprised you most since starting it?

I guess how immediate the response was? I knew that it would be successful, but I really thought that would just slowly grow day by day, but it really just exploded instead! My Twitter notifications went absolutely crazy in the first few days!

So this, and how many people reached out to me offering help. They even emailed me their CVs! I was totally not prepared for this haha. But it’s growing into something really beautiful, and I can’t wait to share some news with you all.

HOPKINSON:  What would you like to see more of in the literary community?

Better tools, of course! I want everyone to be able to focus on their work, and reading other people’s work, and meeting new people, and not be overwhelmed and demotivated by drowning in this endless ocean of unorganized info they don’t know what to do with. We’ve got so much information right now, and it’s really easy to get lost in it and shut down completely. And I want people to remain excited about their art and being here in this community. So I’m working on creating a place for that!

HOPKINSON:  What has helped you most as a writer?

I tried to think of anything else but “reading,” which is the most obvious answer haha, so I’ll say listening to lots of music with great lyrics! I’m a musician myself, so it’s been a huge part of my life for years. One of my favorite bands is mewithoutYou, and their singer Aaron Weiss is weirdly one of the greatest writers ever for me. I swear I can sit and decipher his lyrics for hours, they are just so so good. A LOT of my songs and poems were written after I just went for a walk with one of their albums, and I’m forever grateful for all the inspiration.

HOPKINSON:  What are you currently working on or what’s coming up next for you?

I’m currently focused on adding more magazines to the platform, I’ve received so many suggestions! And I also have like 200 more magazines in my own spreadsheet that I haven’t added yet! So a lot of work on that front, and I’m hoping to give some of this work to volunteers so that I could have more time for adding more features to the platform. Speaking of which, so many more features are coming! But that’s a secret haha. I’ll let you know this: we’ll be a better Submittable, a better Duotrope, and a better place to hang out with your writer friends.

HOPKINSON:  How can poets/writers get updates on Chill Subs?

Twitter, follow us on Twitter! https://twitter.com/chillsubs

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